Chattanooga Times Free Press Discusses Industrial Specialty Chemicals Leader, MFG’s, New Headquarters

Chattanooga Times Free Press Discusses Industrial Specialty Chemicals Leader, MFG’s, New Headquarters

The Chattanooga Times Free Press has recently published an article about specialty surfactants and industrial specialty chemicals company, MFG Chemical’s new headquarters in their city. The article features an interview with contract chemical manufacturers CEO Paul Turgeon as well as details about the relocation of the executive team. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

Industrial Specialty Chemicals MFG’s New Headquarters

Chattanooga has won a regional competition to house the headquarters of a specialty chemical manufacturer and industrial specialty chemicals, beating out Atlanta and the company’s longtime chemical toller home office location.

Chemical roller and contract chemical manufacturers, MFG Chemical, started and headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, for four decades, is shifting its executive team to Liberty Tower in downtown Chattanooga, said company CEO Paul Turgeon.

Plans are to initially take up about two-thirds of the 15th floor in Liberty Tower, which is the third tallest building in Chattanooga.

Charles Wood, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for economic development, said leaders in the greater Chattanooga area find that it competes with the Atlanta metro region more often these days. “As a midsized city with a labor pool of more than 1 million people in the surrounding 15 counties, we continue to grow our reputation for offering easy access to the great outdoors and for a quality of life that, for many people, surpasses that of a large metro,” said Wood.

New Capacity for Contract Chemical Manufacturers

…

Turgeon said chemical toller and specialty surfactants company MFG’s administrative employees currently are housed in one of its Dalton plants, but the company needs more capacity. Officials did a search from Chattanooga to Atlanta and points between and picked the Scenic City “as the best place for us to be.”

MFG started in 1980 making chemicals for the textile industry, but it later expanded its market focus. While the business grew, the family decided to sell the company, which is now owned by the private equity firm Platte River Equity in Denver.

Turgeon, 60, who was born in Canada but also has U.S. citizenship, said he joined MFG’s board three years ago amid a long career in the industrial chemistry industry. He was elevated to CEO in January. But in March, the coronavirus pandemic hit and created a lot of market turbulence. That prompted the company to take down its facilities for maintenance for a period and some employees were furloughed, the CEO said. “It was an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime event,” he said. “It has been difficult waters to navigate.” The chemical toller company put into place health and safety measures for employees, and it even moved to produce hand sanitizer, which it marketed “pretty successfully,” Turgeon said.

Now, he said, all of contract chemical manufacturers MFG’s facilities are running again, though not at full tilt. Revenues likely will fall about 12% in 2020 over last year, Turgeon said, with all of that due to the six- to eight-week period in the spring. Looking ahead t o2021, he said he’s “guardedly optimistic and positive.” He’s hopeful all 50 states will have reopened their economies next year.

“The company is well-positioned in its markets,” he said, adding that contract chemical manufacturers MFG is continuing to invest in the business, its employees, and plants.

“We need more capacity and people.”

Turgeon said a company priority for the specialty surfactants company is sustainability, and it’s making multimillion-dollar upgrades to environmental controls at its plants to improve quality.

One trend is that companies that had moved offshore are shifting operations back to the U.S., Turgeon said. “There’s an opportunity to grow with that trend,” he said. “We have very robust growth prospects.”

To learn more about how specialty surfactants company MFG Chemical has worked through the Coronavirus pandemic, and why we chose Chattanooga as our new headquarters location, please read the full article.

Learn More About Industrial Specialty Chemicals MFG Chemical

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Dalton, GA, specialty surfactants company, MFG Chemical, is a leading custom contract manufacturer of complex chemistries serving a wide range of contract chemical manufacturers, industrial chemical manufacturers and specialty chemical manufacturers companies that participate in a diverse set of end markets.

If you’re interested in working with our contract chemical manufacturers at MFG Chemical, please give us a call at 706-226-4114 or send an email to info@mfgchemical.com. We work with specialty surfactants, water treatment polymers, water soluble polymers, industrial specialty chemicals, co polymers, polyacrylates, solvent polymerization, and more.